


More Frozen Than Fishsticks

by elistaire



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Gen, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-03
Updated: 2011-10-03
Packaged: 2017-10-24 06:36:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/260230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elistaire/pseuds/elistaire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the prompt: "Alex/Armando, huddling for warmth. It's pretty established that Darwin can adapt to anything, so maybe some big baddie locks them up or Azazel teleports them to Antarctica. Cue Armando helping Alex out with cuddles."</p><p>~~~</p><p><i>The door to the cooler they’d been peeking into slammed shut and Alex could hear the latch being thrown and a lock clicking into place. A faint echo of laughter resounded in his head and Alex moaned. “Should have known better than to try and sneak up behind a telepath,” he said. </i></p>
            </blockquote>





	More Frozen Than Fishsticks

**Author's Note:**

> Link to the [original prompt](http://1stclass-kink.dreamwidth.org/1269.html?thread=22517#cmt22517)

“Did you see where she went?” Darwin asked in a low voice.

“In here, I think,” Alex whispered back

Quite by accident, while in the city running some errands that couldn’t be accomplished back in Westchester, Darwin had caught sight of Emma Frost. They’d followed her through several side streets and then into this restaurant, through the back and into the cellar. Then, they’d lost her.

Suddenly Alex was shoved forward, slamming his chin into Darwin’s back, and they both went down in a heap on the floor.

The door to the cooler they’d been peeking into slammed shut and Alex could hear the latch being thrown and a lock clicking into place. A faint echo of laughter resounded in his head and Alex moaned. “Should have known better than to try and sneak up behind a telepath,” he said.

“Lesson learned,” Darwin replied dryly. He moved to examine the inner workings of the door, giving the release mechanism a tug. “Won’t work with that lock on the outside,” he said.

Alex looked around, hoping for another exit. There was a small red light in the corner of the room and it illuminated everything in a dim glow, revealing heavily stacked shelves of frozen foods.

“Can you blast us out of here?” Darwin asked

Alex looked dubiously at the door. Coolers tended to have thick, insulated walls and while Alex thought he could probably cut through the door easily, the problem came because the cooler was so cramped. Darwin was pressed up behind him and in close quarters all around were stacks of frozen foods. One shelf held bags of pre-cooked French fries, another nothing but fish patties, and one entire unit was full of cream-puffs. If Alex miscalculated, or didn’t hit the door straight on, he’d set the entire thing on fire. He wouldn’t survive that, and he didn’t want to find out if Darwin could manage to adapt to an environment of no oxygen and searing flames.

“Maybe,” Alex said. “As a last resort.”

“If we aren’t back to the mansion tonight, the Professor will come searching for us,” Darwin said. “But that might be a long wait.” He looked calculating. “Assuming there’s enough air in here for a wait that long.”

“Someone’s got to come by at some point,” Alex said, and he moved over to the door and started pounding on it.

“Sure. Maybe,” Darwin said, but he didn’t look convinced.

Alex pounded for what felt like an hour, but was probably more like ten minutes. No one came to let them out. He pushed and pulled at the release mechanism until his fingers grew numb. Then he stuck his hands in his pockets and kicked at the door. That took up another ten minutes. He looked to Darwin. “Want to take a turn?”

“Love to,” Darwin said, and took Alex’s place, kicking and pounding.

Alex retreated into the cooler, shuffling boxes of frozen asparagus to the side so he could sit down on a shelf. He wasn’t dressed very well to be stuck in a freezer. He had on a light long-sleeved jacket and jeans, but his socks were cotton and his feet were already cold. He thought about his power, the burning-hot energy trapped just under his skin. He could try to tap into it, just enough for warmth, but there was too much risk that he’d release a blast. He’d never tried it during training and cramped quarters with Darwin’s safety at stake was not a place to give it a first try. No, it was better not to even draw upon it at all.

After a long time, Darwin stopped pounding on the door and came back to Alex. “Want to try again?” he asked, and then he added, “You’re shivering. Come on, move around, and you’ll warm up again.”

Alex stood up and started on the door again, kicking and hitting in sets of three. He wasn’t sure it was really the SOS signal—how was he supposed to do three long, he could only manage three short, but it was close enough. It did warm him up some and he felt better, although his toes remained numb. He glanced back at Darwin, who had taken his spot, and sucked in some air.

Darwin heard him and startled awake. “Guess I dozed off. Sorry.” He looked down at his hand. “Wow. Never did that before.” Darwin had frozen solid, and looked like an ice statue come to life, although one dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt.

“You turned to ice!” Alex said, amazed.

“I suppose I did,” Darwin said, still fascinated by his hands. He touched his face. “That just feels so weird.”

“Guess you can’t be cold if you’re already frozen,” Alex said.

Darwin laughed. Then he grew serious. “Your lips are purple.”

“Yeah, it’s fucking freezing in here. Your turn to kick the door, by the way.”

Darwin traded places with Alex and started beating on the door.

“You won’t shatter?” Alex asked, suddenly concerned.

“Nah. I can still feel everything, and how hard I can hit before I hurt myself.” Darwin spared a glance for Alex. “I’m more worried about you. You can’t adapt like I can, and we’ve been in here for nearly two hours now. We really might end up having to wait for the Professor to come looking for us. We need to keep you warm.” Darwin paused, considering. “Here, I’m already iced up. You can wear my sweatshirt in addition to your own jacket. That should help.”

Alex gratefully took the sweatshirt, pulling it on over his head. It was cold to the touch, since Darwin obviously wasn’t putting off any body heat.

After another twenty minutes of pounding, Darwin pulled back. “Come on, Alex. Your turn. Get some blood pumping. It’ll help you stay warm.”

Alex lurched forward. He felt stiff and awkward. He leaned against the door and gave it a kick with his sneaker.

Darwin hovered next to him. “Jump up and down a little, get the blood moving,” he said, sounding a little desperate, and a bit like a broken record.

“I am,” Alex said. He put his head against the door and closed his eyes. Everything ached with the cold.

“You’re going to get frostbite,” Darwin said, “if we don’t get you out of here.” He banged on the door in frustration. “And I’m all frozen up. We can’t even huddle.” Darwin stomped around in a circle. “Aw, hell.” He rounded again in another circuit and his eyes lit up. He reached out and grabbed one of the bags of frozen shrimp. “Take this,” he said, and put it into Alex’s hand.

“I don’t like seafood,” Alex said. “I had an allergic reaction once.”

“Not to eat. Hit me with it.”

“Hit you? What the hell for?”

“So I’ll adapt again. I’ll need to be something that’ll protect me from the cold and from being hit. This ice form could shatter.”

“No!” Alex said. “If you adapt again, it might be into something where you would be cold.”

“Never happen. Now. Hit me hard as you can.”

“Fine,” Alex said, and gripped the bag as tightly as he could and gave a swing. It took two more swings before Darwin’s ice-form shifted. Alex swung the bag the third time and connected with Darwin’s back, and Darwin sprouted fur. It was long and silky, with a definite thick undercoat.

He turned and held up his hands, smiling at his shaggy appearance. “Check this out,” he said. “I’m the Abominable Darwin.”

“Cute. Real cute.”

“Yeah, it is. Now come here.” Darwin sat down on the ground in the aisle, with just enough room so that he could occasionally kick at the door. He opened his arms and Alex sighed and then sat down too, and leaned back against Darwin’s chest. Darwin draped his arms around Alex and pulled him in tightly. “Any better?”

Alex could feel the heat of Darwin’s body next to his own, but it only magnified how wretchedly cold he had already become. “It will be,” he said. “You’re better than a feather comforter.”

“Don’t give my adaptation any other ideas,” Darwin warned with a laugh. “I think the fur is working out quite nicely at the moment.”

Alex rested his head back. From where he looked up, he could see under Darwin’s now-furry chin to his thickened eyelashes. “Should have done this two hours ago,” he said.

“Yeah,” Darwin said. “Professor is going to give us failing marks.”

Alex snorted and wriggled a bit, trying to press closer against Darwin. All of a sudden, he yawned.

“You can sleep if you want,” Darwin said. “I’ll give the door a thump every minute or two.” He struck the door with his foot.

Alex was finally starting to feel less cold. He flexed his fingers, which were still stiff and now painfully tingly as the feeling crept back in. He plunged his hands into the fur of Darwin’s arms where they wrapped around him and held tightly, feeling warmth suffuse into him. Against his back, Darwin was a near-furnace, and at any other time Alex would have felt scorched and gotten far away, but right now he craved that heat and connection.

“If I fall asleep with you like this, you know Sean will tease us about napping and teddy bears until the end of time.”

“I know,” Darwin said, and Alex could hear the smile in his voice. “It’ll be worth it, if you don’t freeze to death.”

“Hmph,” Alex said. He’d been really cold, but had he looked that bad?

“Anytime you feel up to firing on the door, you let me know.”

Alex muttered something purposefully unintelligible and sank deeper into Darwin’s embrace. If he hadn’t been willing to set the cooler on fire before, he sure as hell wouldn’t do it now with Darwin covered in an even more flammable material. Alex stifled a groan. He had the worst mutant ability ever. It wasn’t useful for anything but cutting things in half, setting things on fire, and destroying property in half the time it took with conventional methods.

Even months after Darwin had regenerated from that…that horrible moment last year, Alex still had nightmares. He couldn’t ever let loose. He didn’t want more tragedy on his conscience.

Darwin gave the door another kick. “I trust you, you know,” he whispered. “You won’t hurt me.”

Alex shook his head. “It always goes wrong,” he said.

“Not this time. I know you, and I know you’ll do it right.”

Alex huffed against the furry chest and groaned. He was worried about the air in the cooler, and about how long they might be here. What if the Professor didn’t check on them until tomorrow night? What if no one ever came down to this freezer again? They couldn’t eat frozen food. Even if the air held out, they’d starve to death. Could Darwin adapt to no oxygen, no food? Alex pressed himself into that comfortable warmth for a moment longer, cataloguing the memory, feeling at least momentarily safe in Darwin’s presence. But he couldn’t fool himself, waiting here was not the best option.

“You’re crazier than I am,” Alex said. “Okay. Get back.”

Darwin flashed him a triumphant look and went to the very back of the cooler.

Alex contemplated the distance to the door. He needed enough room to fire, but he wanted to be as far away from Darwin as possible. Just in case.

He aimed, concentrated, and pulled up that wanton energy that existed just below his skin. It sizzled, scorching, and then it blasted out of him and hit the door straight on, punching a hole all the way through.

Alex bent over, hands on his knees, and stared at his handiwork.

Darwin slapped him on the back as he squeezed by. “I knew you had it in you,” he said. He put his head out through the hole. “Damn. You didn’t hit the lock!” He laughed and then crawled gingerly out through the hole. He held an arm back inside and motioned for Alex to follow him.

Alex did, and felt light-headed as he stared at the freezer from the outside. He’d actually managed to save them, and nobody had caught on fire. Elation bubbled through him and he felt like he was walking on air as he and Darwin started to find their way out.

Darwin held up his arm. “Fur’s gone,” he said. Then he broke out into a smile. “I hate to give and take, but would you mind returning my sweatshirt? It’s damn breezy out here!”

Alex laughed and pulled the sweatshirt off, handing it back.

“Thank you” Darwin said with an intense, pointed look, and it was more than just a polite response to a returned sweatshirt, it was for daring to believe he could do something right, and blast a way to escape.

Alex gave in to a wide grin of relief and pride as Darwin pulled his sweatshirt on.

“Now let’s get the hell out of here,” Darwin said, and they did.


End file.
